AP VA fact check missing facts

UPDATE July 25, 2012
Shinseki: Backlog means VA reaching more vets

This is what AP reported as FACT CHECK

FACT CHECK: Disability claims still growing at VA
By By KEVIN FREKING – 8 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama paints an encouraging picture of the additional resources his administration has poured into helping veterans get disability benefits and mental health treatment. But he glosses over just how much those problems have grown during his time in office.

Obama spoke Monday to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. His Republican rival for the White House, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, is set to address the same group Tuesday. A look at Obama's assertions about the Veterans Affairs Department's efforts and how they compare with the facts:

OBAMA: "We've hired thousands of claims processors. We're investing in paperless systems. To their credit, the dedicated folks at the VA are now completing 1 million claims a year, but there's been a tidal wave of new claims."

THE FACTS: Veterans can be eligible for help with conditions caused or aggravated by their military service. The government, however, has long struggled to keep up with the claims, and the backlog has grown worse during the president's term in office as soldiers return from Iraq and Afghanistan.
read more here

These are the real facts.

VA: NEARLY 500 CRITICAL DOCUMENTS FOUND IN SHREDDER BINS
ALL VA SHREDDER SCANDAL ARTICLES HERE...

UPDATE: NEW VA FIGURES SHOW NATIONWIDE PROBLEM WITH SHREDDING CRITICAL DOCUMENTS (10-23-08)VA finds hundreds of documents critical to veterans' claims in shredder bins across the country.AND --

FILNER COMPARES VA TO "KEYSTONE COPS," TO HOLD HEARING ON SHREDDING IN NOVEMBER (10-24-08)

DAV "OUTRAGED" BY VA SHREDDER SCANDAL (10-24-08)

HISTORY OF DECEPTION: VA ATTORNEYS CONVICTED OF DESTROYING DOCUMENTS (10-22-08)

FEDERAL JUDGE FINES VA FOR SHREDDING CRITICAL DOCUMENTS ... IN 1987 (10-20-08)

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS 38 CFR Part 3
RIN 2900-AN04
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
AGENCY: Department of Veterans Affairs.
ACTION: Interim final rule.
SUMMARY: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is amending its adjudication regulations regarding service connection for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by eliminating the requirement of evidence corroborating occurrence of the claimed in-service stressor in claims in which PTSD is diagnosed in service. This amendment is necessary to facilitate the proof of service connection in such claims. By this amendment, we intend to reduce claim-processing time for such claims.

Unopened claims letters hidden at VA offices
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Mar 3, 2009 17:22:51 EST

A new report about Veterans Affairs Department employees squirreling away tens of thousands of unopened letters related to benefits claims is sparking fresh concerns that veterans and their survivors are being cheated out of money.

VA officials acknowledge further credibility problems based on a new report of a previously undisclosed 2007 incident in which workers at a Detroit regional office turned in 16,000 pieces of unprocessed mail and 717 documents turned up in New York in December during amnesty periods in which workers were promised no one would be penalized.

“Veterans have lost trust in VA,” Michael Walcoff, VA’s under secretary for benefits, said at a hearing Tuesday. “That loss of trust is understandable, and winning back that trust will not be easy.”

Crisis at the VA as Benefits Claims Backlog Nearly Tops One Million

Monday, 01 June 2009
By Jason Leopold

During the past four months, the Department of Veterans Affairs backlog of unfinished disability claims from grew by more than 100,000, adding to an already mountainous backlog that is now close to topping one million.

The VA's claims backlog, which includes all benefits claims and all appeals at the Veterans Benefits Administration and the Board of Veterans Appeals at VA, was 803,000 on Jan. 5, 2009. The backlog hit 915,000 on May 4, 2009, a staggering 14 percent increase in four months.

June 4, 2009, Subcommittee approves bill easing PTSD compensation for vets

October 13, 2009 VA Extends "Agent Orange" Benefits to More Veterans

August 6, 2010 Court orders VA to act on new Agent Orange findings

These are just examples of what happened to increase the number of veterans filing claims on top of the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans filing claims. The other truth is that there were less doctors and nurses working for the VA than after the Gulf War. Another factor is the layoffs and employment freezes that happened all over the country along with the other fact that every state is different when it comes to taking care of veterans.

Here's another one

July 23, 2012 Political Shenanigans Target Veterans

Obama had to deal with the congress screaming about cutting the public workers at the same time each state was doing the same and then they started to complain about what they were all a part of all these years because the media let them get away with it and now, now they are FACT CHECKING?

Did AP mention how the elected GOP in congress want to turn the VA over to private companies and this very well could be part of their plan to do it? Break it so they can get rid of it.